The Story of the Iowa Food Cooperative

When did the IFC start? Legal incorporation (when we became an entity) was done in July 2008. That’s when the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws were submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office to become a co-op.

We became an entity after a 2 year Leopold Center planning grant, as well as various previous attempts to find markets (like helping launch a distribution business in Ames call “Eat Iowa” and trying to work with Loffredos).

How many members at the start? There were 21 founding members. We started recruiting members in Sept. 2008 (needed the software installed first). By the time we launched with a Nov. 20th distribution, we had 30 producer members and 74 consumer members, or 104 total. We had 44 members order $3,271 in product from 18 different producers our first cycle.